London 2012 Olympics branding film causes epileptic seizures

One thing to keep in mind when introducing any kind of flashing on the Web is the possibility of it causing seizures in people who have photosensitive epilepsy. It’s one of the basics of Web accessibility, and the fact that flashing or strobing can trigger epileptic seizures is widely known even among people who do not work in the field of accessibility.

I was first made aware of it back in the early nineties, when I used to do a bit of DJing. I loved using the strobes, but after a girl came up to the DJ booth one night to tell me she’d had an epileptic seizure caused by strobing lights I stopped using them. Strobes are cool, but not when you know they may trigger a seizure in someone on the dance floor.

The same film, created to promote the London 2012 brand, was shown on television, where it also triggered seizures. This is a bit more surprising than the film being published on the website, since there are machine-testable regulations for television footage that make sure it does not trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy. The London 2012 ad was apparently not tested, and consequently did not comply with the Ofcom safety guidelines, as mentioned by BBC News in Epilepsy fears over 2012 footage.

The film has since been re-edited to remove the seizure-triggering segment. Accessibility issues aside, the logo for the London 2012 Olympic Games has been talked about in plenty of forums. I’ll settle for saying that I’ve seen many logos that are better, but Jack Pickard has a bit more to say about it in London Logo No Go. Hint – he is not overly enthusiastic about it ;-).

I posted the logo and the movie on my company blog only minutes after the logo was revealed to the public. In the blog entry I jokingly warned anyone prone to seizures to stay well clear. I didn’t realize it could really cause seizures!

Ouch! To the ire of some of the design professionals the succession of blog posts and news items about the far-off olympics is rapidly turning into a fiasco to some extent.
Are they enjoying poking fun, or wish it were over?
I don’t wish anyone any disrespect, but the community of London just keeps taking their lumps over this one.

My eyes hurt more and more each time I look at that site. And now I just read Jack Pickard’s writeup describing the logo as “Lisa Simpson performing a sex act” and now I can never look at it the same again. Yes, look closely and you’ll see it.

Of any organization, you’d think the Olympics would be sensitive to this after being sued in 2000 for an inaccessible web site - http://www.contenu.nu/socog.html

I watched the original version of the video. It’s funny this thing happened because the flash player on the page had closed captioning available. The webpage had a link for the text transcription of the video. This indicates some concern with accessibility.

I guess the person who manages the website is not the same who produced the video…maybe he should do that.

The logo and website is horrible. Slightly off topic now. The only reason for it to look that way is if it’s meant to create some pr buzz around London OS 2012 before the acual logo/profile is released. I sure hope it is that way… otherwise I hope the persons responsible at Wolff Olins will be run out of Britain. :)